A retest of water in Pavillion, Wyoming, found evidence of many of the same gases and compounds the Environmental Protection Agency used to link contamination there to hydraulic fracturing, the first finding of that kind. [Bloomberg]

One topic you don’t hear much about from Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is climate change. Like so much else, it’s become politically divisive, with polls showing Republicans far less likely to believe in it or support policies to address it. But two new groups aim to work from within, using conservative arguments to win over skeptics. [WBUR]

In Illinois, one estimate suggests that corn farmers will lose one-quarter less of their crop than they did during the 1988 drought – in large part because of the seeds they planted. [Christian Science Monitor]

Idaho and Washington states have been especially hard hit by wildfires. Spokane has received only a trace of rain in several weeks, while the Mustang Complex fire in Idaho still rages after more than a month. It has burned nearly 340,000 acres and is only 25 percent contained. [UPI]

Both the Farmers’ Almanac (FA) and Old Farmer’s Almanac (OFA) have released their winter outlooks. The common theme: cold east of the Rockies and warm in the West. [Weather Gang]

It is a fiercely ambitious goal, but a feasible one – according to the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon. Universal energy access is just one of the aims of his Sustainable Energy for All initiative, which got a big push at a recent meeting on the sidelines of the UN general assembly. [Guardian]

More bad news for Mitt Romney: the Republican party’s scepticism about climate change seems likely to play badly with voters who haven’t yet decided who to back in November’s US presidential election. [New Scientist]

The Japanese government is seeking to relax procedures on environmental impact in order to make it easier to build more coal fired power plants. [Power Engineering]

The waters of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef are getting warmer, satellite measurements show, which spells bad news for the myriad creatures that dwell in this rain forest of the ocean. [Our Amazing Planet]

Salt marshes around the world’s coasts will help slow climate change until about 2050 by soaking up greenhouse gases but then risk making the problem even worse as sea levels rise, a study showed on Wednesday. [Reuters]

Another monster typhoon has spun up in the western Pacific. Following super typhoon Sanba that ripped across Okinawa and then into South Korea, super typhoon Jelawat is also eyeing Okinawa before a possible encounter with Japan. [Weather Gang]

More than 500,000 homes and businesses in the UK will be at “significant” risk of flooding without more investment, according to a Committee on Climate Change report in July.

The Environment Agency has warned it needs a year-on-year increase of £20m for flood defences on top of inflation to maintain the current level of protection.

But flood defence spending is 12% below what it was in the last spending review period, with a gap opening up of £860m between what has been pledged for 2011-2015 and what is needed to keep the same number of properties protected.

One can check the air quality in the Pacific Northwest viahttp://lar.wsu.edu/airpact/
Only the first two days are meaningful as the program asumes (incorrectly) that the wildfires will rapidly be extinguished.